


What's Dubstep?

by The_Rogue_Girl



Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Penny hates Taylor Swift, Psychic Abilities, Quentin is Awkward, Season 1, bangarang, dubstep - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2018-07-06
Packaged: 2019-06-06 01:00:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15183284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Rogue_Girl/pseuds/The_Rogue_Girl
Summary: "Yes I can" Penny stated giving Quentin a hard look."Yes, I have."Quentin eyes widened.Exasperated Penny answered "Yes, everything that you think is so boring, I replace it with Dubstep."Quentin face changed from a look of admiration to scrunched-up confusion. "What's Dubstep?"





	What's Dubstep?

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this because the plot seemed obvious and I could not believe it was not written yet. We need more The Magicians Fanfiction!  
> This was supposed to be a Penny/Quentin but the characters never got there because they were being stubborn... SO Friendship Fic it is :)  
> I hope this helps a little to fill the void of not enough The Magicians fanfiction.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Alice and Quentin were sitting on the floor of the classroom scrounging through the magic books surrounding them with only candle light to read by. They had until midnight to figure out the components of the summoning spell so that they could contact Alice's brother Charlie. 

Quentin was sitting crossed-legged with a book in one hand and a pencil in the other taking notes. He knew that this was serious, but he was filled with a sense of wonder. Magic was real, he was at a magical school, and he was about to do a secret summoning spell with someone who was, hopefully, a new friend. This was a dream come true and everything he had hoped his life would be. Quentin passed the book to Alice and began noting the things they would need for the summoning spell.

Barely a minute passed before Alice exclaimed "Shit. Oh, no." while looking down at the spell book. She was hoping that she had read it wrong, and preceded to read and reread the paragraph, but of course she had understood everything correctly the first time. She needed to talk to Charlie! She needed to know what had happened to him, and she slowly felt the chance slipping away no matter how hard she tried to cling to the hope she had felt when they had first found the book.

Quentin looked up from his work dumbfounded. "What? No, this is good. This is all making sense." Quentin smiled knowing that Alice was worrying over nothing. They could do this. Alice would be able to speak to Charlie and she would be happy. They had already found the spell and had plenty of time to complete it by midnight. Alice was worrying over nothing.

"Yeah. No, it is." Alice continued clinging to the fact they had found the knowledge and had the magical capability. "It's just we can do this. It's just we can't do this." She punctuated gesturing to Quentin and herself.

Realization and sorrow started to seep into Quentin's features as he began to comprehend that they couldn't summon Charlie alone. That even though they had found what they needed in time, Alice and himself alone were not enough. That they would not be able to find anyone to assist them with an illegal spell in the dead of night and they may never get this chance again. 

At the moment when hope was lost and Quentin began to pick up the scattered books off the floor to put away, the classroom door creaked opened. Alice and Quentin jumped, the latter dropping one of the books in surprise, and looked up from their work in alarm. It was late and no one should have been in the academic building at this hour. They shouldn't have been in the academic building at this hour. They were so screwed.

Penny strolled into the classroom looking around confused, as if he did not know where he was or why he was there. Which was in fact the truth. He knew that the classroom was where the voice had wanted him to go, he just did not know why. Kady trailed in behind him and quietly shut the door.

"Oh." Penny stated stiltedly when he saw Alice and Quentin on the floor at the front of the room. Penny's expression, oddly, being that of someone caught doing something weird. "Hi. So...." Why had Penny decided it was a good idea to leave his room? The voice had never led him wrong before but what was the voice thinking? Penny could think of plenty of better ways to spend a Thursday night then being trapped in a room with his awkward roommate. Particularly, how much mischief he could have gotten up to with Kady, that is if they had even decided to leave the room in the first place. But alas, he was here.

Kady looked to Penny in disgust "You got to be kidding me? We were sent here to help these losers?" A sentiment that Penny completely agreed with, if the look on his face was anything to go by. Of course, Quentin would be the one that needed his help in the dead of night.

"Sent?" Alice questioned. "Wait, who sent you?" Hope slowly began to return to Alice. With the four of them they could summon Charlie! This was what the book had said they needed! This was prefect! Maybe Charlie had somehow sent them here because he wanted them to succeed? No, it didn't matter how, what was important was that Alice would finally get to know what happened.

"No one." Penny stated firmly, his tone and accompanying glare leaving no room for questions or arguments. Penny just wanted to do whatever he was sent for so he could leave. The faster that could happen the better. "Look I gather that you guys need some extra hands or something?"

Quentin looked at Penny in shock. This was perfect! It was almost like Penny could read minds.

"Yes I can" Penny stated giving Quentin a hard look.

Wait, Penny could read Quentin's mind?

"Yes, I have."

Quentin eyes widened. That was so cool! So when Penny spaced out he wasn't listening to music in his head or daydreaming but listening to other people's thoughts?

Exasperated Penny answered "Yes, everything that you think is so boring, I replace it with Dubstep."

Quentin face changed from a look of admiration to scrunched-up confusion. "What's Dubstep?"

Penny gave Quentin an appalled look. Of course his roommate had to prove himself as an even bigger loser. What kind of question was that? Who hadn't heard of Dubstep?

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * 

The next day:

After the summoning spell had wasted Penny's time by doing absolutely nothing, Penny was sitting on his bed trying to meditate in-between classes. He was focusing on his breathing to clear his mind; simply breathing in and out. 

Penny had found that even though most students were able to create passable shields on their minds, these shields were not perfect and that a Magician's mental voice was louder than those without magical abilities. It had become a common practice for Penny, in the weeks since classes began, that once or twice a day he would sit down to reinforce his shields before setting out to face the masses on campus.

The reinforcement of his shields would be especially important today. The last class on a Friday would have to be led by Professor Van Der Weghe. Professor Van Der Weghe was very passionate about magic but was notorious for going off on tangents in the middle of a lecture, some of the time not even in English. For all of his passion, his lectures were a jumbled confusing mess.

It would come as no surprise to find out that the attention span of first year students at a school for magic would be extremely low in classes based on theory rather than practical application. However, a theory class taught by Professor Van Der Weghe had to be the worst. He was well-known for losing the attention of the class within the first five minutes of lecture. Topped with the fact that this was the last class before the weekend ensured that this would be a miserable hour for Penny. 

Penny would not only need to suffer though the lecture like his peers, but he would also need block their errant thoughts. Since the class would be as exciting as watching water boil, the students would lack the focus needed to hold their shields up completely. This meant that Penny needed to prepare to be on the receiving end of a lot of loud voices daydreaming about being anywhere but in class.

Quentin was facing his own dilemmas about the upcoming class. He was sitting across the room at his desk tapping his pen to the beat of the song on his iPod. Elliot had, thankfully, known a spell to get the iPod to work while on campus at Brakebills. The iPod was his current lifeline when it came to making a safe space to study. Don't get him wrong, Quentin loved magic. The text books could just be a little dry and the music kept him from drifting off into dreamland.

Quentin was adamantly attempting, and failing rather spectacularly, at review the reading material before this afternoon's lecture. The reading material, like most magic theory texts, was very dry and hard to follow. Quentin knew that if he was having this much trouble already then he had no chance of keeping up in class. Professor Van Der Weghe's lectures were a nightmare to try to follow and if he did not even understand the basics before class, then there was no way he would be able to follow any of what professor Van Der Weghe would be drowning on about. 

The biggest hang-up Quentin was currently facing was not memorizing the facts in the book, but trying to understand why the information was fact and why it even mattered. To Quentin's growing frustration, the book stated nowhere why alloys reacted the way they did to magic or even what types of spells did or did not cause this reaction.

What did one type of metal alloy rather than another being around an area during casting (not even used in the casting!) have anything to do with the effects of a spells anyway? Magic was real, it was alive, it coursed through a Magician during a spell. What did a nonliving material that happened to be laying on the ground nearby have to do with Magic being cast? Living breathing energy moving through a person, not the objects near by!

Penny's eyes popped open and he immediately began to glare daggers at Quentin as he shouted "What the fuck Coldwater?"

Quentin totally did not jump or tense. Quentin yanked out one of his earbuds. He had been sitting quietly studying, why did Penny have to act like such a dick? This was Quentin's room too. Quentin turned in his chair to face Penny. “What is your problem man?”

"My problem? Look if you want any chance of memorizing your pathetic excuse for notes, you will stop singing in your head! I am mediating over here in case you hadn't noticed, you inconsiderate fucker." Penny needed all the mental strength he could muster to make it though this class and Quentin was sabotaging his attempts.

"What!” Quentin exclaimed in disbelief, getting rather defensive at Penny's accusation, “I am not singing! I am studying, unlike you. Some of us care about passing class." No matter how horrible the teacher. Magic was amazing and this boring class was worth it if it got Quentin one step closer to being a better Magician.

"Dude, you sure do have a "Blank Space" and it is in-between your ears." Penny all but shouted as he jumped off the bed, grabbed his messenger bag, and stormed out of the room. The door slammed loudly behind him. 

Quentin slumped in his chair and rolled the eyes up to the ceiling hoping that an answer for why he was trapped with Penny as his roommate might fall from the sky. Was Penny being his roommate the cost of his karma balancing out? Something would need to balance out the wonder of Magic being real and him being accepted into Brakebills, right? Was it worth it if the cost was dealing with Penny? Yes, yes it was but that did not mean Quentin had to like it.

Sighing, Quentin looked down at his iPod while putting his earbud back in. Staring back at him on his iPod was the cover to Taylor Swift's 1989 album and the song Blank Space.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * 

Penny was livid. As he walked down one of the many sidewalks on campus with Kady he tried, desperately, to calm down. Even with his attempts, Penny could not refrain from grumbling insistently about the fact that know-nothing of a professor had decided that he was Psychic. Him! A psychic! Kady tolerated his seething good-naturedly as she walked beside him and tried to cheer him up, but it did nothing to calm him down.

Penny was not some crazy fortune-telling scam-artist psychic! He just wasn't! He had gone to those lunatics trying to learn how to control the voices in his head. He had begged them for help. He was just looking for an off switch and all they talked about was how it was such a Fucking Blessing By Magic! Having searing headaches and listening to the inane chatter of strangers in your head was not a blessing! It was a fucking curse. It was his fucking curse.

And now he, Penny, was “one of them”. He was a touchy-feely psychic. One of those crazy Magician's that could not even hold a normal conversation because they were above speaking out loud. Who insisted that speaking mind-to-mind made them superior, more natural, than other Magicians. That attitude just was not Penny; magic was great and all but hearing thoughts brought him nothing but pain. He did not want to hear other people's thoughts, let alone speak with others through them. He did not want to be surrounded by those psychos for the rest of his time at Brakebills, but that Bitch wouldn't listen to him!

Penny was just thankfully most people at Brakebills blocked their minds. That, even though Magician's thoughts were louder, he was able to walk around campus surrounded by a sea of students and hear almost nothing. That even the psychics wore blocks unless they were speaking directly to you. He reviled in the fact that he did not have to waste energy all the time putting up stronger shields to attempt to minimize the onslaught of thoughts like he had to growing up surrounded by non-magical people. There voices may have been quieter but there was way more of them than the magician's he dealt with now.

During his musing the breath was knocked out of him. Penny was suddenly hit by a sharp pain in his head, as if a stereo had been turned on in a silent room but the volume was set on max. 

Penny immediately regretted having let his guard down and not reinforcing his shields. Penny grabbed his head and quickly focused on putting up a rudimentary shield to muffle the sharp probing of a very off key voice screaming lyrics in his head:

"'Cause baby now we got bad blood!  
You know it used to be mad love!  
So take a look at what you've done!  
'Cause baby now we got bad blood!  
Now we got problems!  
And I don't think we can solve them!  
You made a really deep cut!  
And baby now we got bad blood!"

Penny whirled around looking for the idiot who was about to be knocked out and shut the fuck up. Who the hell had their shields down! It was the middle of the fucking day on campus for crying out loud! Penny seethed as he grew angrier. Nobody wanted to hear this idiot wail Taylor Swift and the fucker...

And the fucker was Quentin-Fucking-Coldwater, sitting under a tree 'reading'. What had Penny done for fate the mess with him like this? Penny stalked across the grass to the tree seething, leaving Kady on the sidewalk staring after him in confusion.

"Band-aids don't fix bullet holes!  
You say sorry just for show!  
You live like that, you live with ghosts! (Ghosts!)  
Band-aids don't fix bullet holes! (Hey!)  
You say sorry just for show! (Hey!)  
You live like that, you live with ghosts! (Hey!)”

Quentin was having a very good afternoon. His bruises had finally stopped aching after his fight with Penny the other day, he wasn't kicked out of Brakebills, and he had completed his homework. Quentin was finally starting to settle into a routine being here at Magician school and the course work was finally starting to make sense. 

Quentin had finally caught a break and had time to relax. He was sitting under a tree on campus, beautiful frozen in forever-summer-time campus, rereading Fillory and Further Book I: The World in the Walls. The first book was by far his favorite and he loved falling into the pages as if into the embrace of an old friend. 

Quentin had just gotten to the part in the story where Jane and Martin meet the villain of this book, the Watcherwoman, for the first time. Suddenly Quentin felt as if he was being watched and looked up. He looked up from his peaceful reading to see a pissed off Penny storming towards him. Quentin's thoughts quickly shifted from the magic of Fillory to panic and questioning if there was any possible way he could hide before Penny reached him.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa" Quentin said very quickly while standing with his arms in front of him to try to keep Penny away. Which obviously failed, as Penny shoved him roughly into the tree behind him and pinned him there.

"Are we actually doing this again?" Quentin protested weakly, already envisioning the pain that was to come after another fight. There was no way he was going to win this. Penny was too close for him to cast in self-defense and Penny definitely had brute strength on his side.

"Do you know how to close your mind? Cause I will show you right now?" Penny seethed. Quentin could read the story of his death shining in flashes from Penny's eyes.

Shit, shit, shit! Quentin was blocking! He knows he had been! He must have been! He had done the spell just like Elliot taught him! "I-I Thought I was Elliot gave me-" Quentin stuttered desperately. 

This was all Quentin's fault. Why would he even for a second think that he was allowed to relax and have a peaceful moment. Why had his life turned into this nonsense of murderous moth men, almost losing his magic with his expulsion from school, and his fights with his roommate, which had recently taken a violent turn. Why couldn't he just have the quiet afternoon he desperately wanted?

"Seriously man? Taylor Swift?" The only thing that ever seemed to be in Quentin's head was quotes from Fillory and Taylor Swift songs. Literally, there was no other music but her and it was fucking pissing Penny off.

Quentin looked offended and stated firmly "I am not singing Taylor Swift in my head." And even if he was, she was awesome.

Penny glared and his glares are terrifying. Quentin conceded letting out a sigh, “Okay, I'll work on it. Jeez." Quentin slowly made his retreat to the other side of the tree, in the most awkward fashion possible, hoping his words would appease Penny and not escalate into another fight. He had just gotten to the good part of the story and quiet reading was definitely what he needed after facing his broody roommate. Please fate, just let him have the rest of the evening.

Penny walked back towards Kady and the sidewalk, glad that the off key rendition of something that had once been music had stopped. Penny didn't realize how much better he felt after he was able to let off some steam on Quentin. Kady, however, had noticed.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * 

Later that afternoon:

Penny smirked when Quentin walked in the room. Looking up from where he had been studying sprawled out on his bed, Penny's eyes following Quentin as he walked toward his desk. Not that Quentin noticed, with his Fillory book in hand and his mind deep in the story. Penny returned to his school book excited to witness Quentin's reaction, but patient enough to wait to reap the fruits of his labor. 

Several hours later, which felt more like minutes to him, Quentin set his book down on his desk with a relaxed smile on his face. No matter how many times he read about Fillory he always was able to become immersed in the story and on the edge of his seat with anticipation to read what was about to happen next. 

Quentin felt a moment of confusion as he picked up his iPod from his desk. Funny, hadn't he left that in his nightstand this morning? Quentin mentally shrugged and brushed off his concern.

Quentin really just felt like listening to Taylor Swift's 1989 album on repeat for a bit. He really did love that album. Maybe he would go for a walk around campus while he listened? He was not willing to test Penny twice in one day, and the risk of him singing too loudly in his head was not worth the pain that was sure to follow. Quentin smiled to himself, never would he have thought that his biggest problem once discovering he was a Magician was singing too loudly in his head. Sure, failure was a big fear that he also had but nothing at the moment rivaled the glares Penny could give...or how hard he punched.

Giving a mental shutter, Quentin set the music to shuffle and made his way to the door. He barely caught himself from tripping and he immediately let out a startled shout once the music had started. Quentin looked to his iPod in betrayal as instead of "Wildest Dreams", like the screen listed was playing, the words "Right on time" were repeating to a thumping electronic beat through his earbuds. "What is going on?"

Penny busted out laughing, well more like cackling, at the confused look of horror etched across Quentin's face. Kady had, upon realizing that messing with Quentin put Penny in a better mood, decided that she would help to ensure that Penny had an amazing rest of the day.

"That's Dubstep." Penny preened with a smug look on his face. Penny and Kady had schemed and developed a plan to replace all of Quentin's Taylor Swift music with Dubstep. If Penny was stuck hearing Quentin's thoughts he at least wanted better music, and Skrillex was better music.

"Kady helped me find a spell to make it so you couldn't take any of the songs we added off your iPod.” The look on Penny's face turned conspiratorial as he whispered “and we added another spell so that you couldn't add back any Taylor Swift songs." 

Quentin had a look of indignation on his face that caused Penny's face to split into a Cheshire cat grin.

"Really you should be thanking me. I just saved you from being murdered." Penny looked Quentin in the eyes mischievously and quietly added almost as an after thought "Since you have utterly failed to create or maintain wards on your mind I would much rather hear Dubstep then that sissy girl shit.” Penny slowly stood up and started to leave the room. “Later roomy" 

Penny smiled, glad that the day was looking up for him and headed for Kady's room. The only positive side of his disciple being determined this morning was that soon he wouldn't have to suffer with Quentin as his roommate. No way in hell was he going to actually stay in his room in the Psycho's house, but it would be Quentin-free. Penny mused that he would probably need to get used to crashing at Kady's place.

Quentin was alone in the room staring sadly down at his iPod and he felt like crying. Not that a guy would cry. Quentin had gotten beaten in school enough when younger to learn that lesson. 

Taylor Swift had made him not feel alone. Had helped him get through his parents divorce and the loneliness that had constantly consumed him before discovering that magic was real. Her songs had always been there for him when he needed them and now he had lost them. 

Quentin knew he was shit at shielding. Penny would always get stuck hearing his singing and that was not really fair to Penny. Maybe this was better. Maybe if Quentin learned these lyrics instead they could, not really replace the Taylor Swift songs but act as a substitute? Because in the end Quentin did not want to fight Penny and there was no way he was walking out of another Taylor Swift mental concert without getting his face punched in. Quentin was not the scared lonely teen anymore. He now had friends now that understood him and he had magic. Dubstep couldn't be that bad. 

Quentin hit the back button on his iPod to restart the song, intent on learning the lyrics and making Dubstep his new mental concert.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * 

Penny was slowly going insane. Everywhere he went, every time he closed his eyes, in every single class all he could hear were the words 'Bangarang' and “Shout to all my lost boys” on repeat.

Okay, that was a slight exaggeration, Penny would admit, it was more like the Skrillex song Bangarang was being sang by someone who didn't know the lyrics well and didn't even do the beats correctly in their head during the non-word moments.

Penny couldn't even be mad at Quentin, not really. Where Quentin failed at making wards he was utterly successful at singing Dubstep rather than Taylor Swift. Well, if this one song on repeat for a week could count as the entire genre of Dubstep. There were hints of other songs thrown in at times but it always came back to Bangarang.

Penny had to concede that this was exceedingly better than hearing Taylor Swift. It was at least Dubstep and over time the lyrics had slowly become more accurate. Penny could deal with this. Penny would work on being content with the fact that Bangarang was now a part of his daily routine.

“Shout to all my lost boys, sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-shouts to all my lost boys we rowdy  
Shout to all my lost boys, sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-shouts to all my lost boys we rowdy  
Shout to all my lost boys, sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-shouts to all my lost boys we rowdy”

Nope, Penny couldn't deal with this any longer. Penny grabbed the strap of Quentin's messenger bag from behind as Quentin was exiting class and began to drag him down the hall. 

“Wha-what are you doing?” Quentin stuttered clinging to the strap on the front of the messenger bag as he tried to keep his feet under him while walking backwards.

Penny abruptly stopped and whirled Quentin around. “Dude.” Penny gave Quentin a look that obviously meant 'seriously man'.

“What! No! It's Dubstep. You said I could sing Dubstep!” Quentin pleaded wide-eyed and beseechingly. He had done exactly as asked! He had! He hadn't sang Taylor Swift in a week and any time he had been about to start one of her songs he had caught himself.

“Yes, it is Dubstep. And Yes, it is better.” Quentin visibly relaxed until he heard “But, why this song?” Penny asked in a bewildered tone.

“I found the song relatable.”

“You found the song relatable?” The tone of Penny's voice filled with disbelief.

“Well, you know, being part of the lost boys.” Quentin tried to explain feeling embarrassed. “Peter Pan has nothing on Fillory when it comes to world building, story, or immersion but-” 

“Dude, what kind of nerd shit are you even talking about?” Penny suddenly realized with frustration that he should have just been grateful for the change. Asking why Quentin did anything would, of course, lead to an explanation that made no sense. And in addition to the lack of logic, Quentin also seemed to find a way to bring up Fillory in every conversation. 

“What do you mean? I like the song because it is about being one of Peter Pan's lost boys.” Quentin said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“What? No it isn't.” 

“Of course it is. I mean it talks about the lost boys and says 'Bangarang'. These are indisputable references to the song being about Peter Pan.” Quentin said with that look on his face he gets when he tries to explain any part of the Fillory books. “The artist is expressing how he feels like one of the lost boys and I find that relatable.” 

“What the hell does the word 'Bangarang' have to do with Peter Pan?” Penny knew that he should stop asking questions. That he should slowly back away from his insane now ex-roommate, but really? Quentin was trying to deface Dubstep by turning it into some nerd shit.

“Bangarang is a made-up word from the 1991 movie Hook.” At Penny's confused look Quentin continued, “You know, with Robin Williams as an adult Peter Pan?” 

Penny's expression didn't change “Oh, come on! This isn't even a nerd movie! In the film the lost boys yell the word Bangarang. So the song is a reference to Peter Pan and Neverland. You have to have seen it? It came out over 15 years ago!” Quentin finished loudly in annoyance. 

Penny looked around to see the hallway was empty. “You know what, never mind.” Penny stated calmly like he was talking to a wounded animal and he was afraid it might startle as he slowly retreated down the hallway toward the exit. “That song on repeat is better then Taylor Swift. Just keep singing that.” Penny then turned and high-tailed it to the exit, safely escaping the building.

Quentin stood alone in the hallway and stared after Penny dumbfounded. What the fuck had just happened?

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * 

Penny had thankfully not had any more run-ins with Quentin the rest of the week. The last several days had been, oddly, without a Quentin concert of any kind and it was beginning to unnerve Penny. Penny was left waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Penny was sitting on the bed of his new and sparsely furnished room at the Psycho's—he meant Psychic's—house attempting to mediate but his mind kept wondering. This new silence was not normal. This was Quentin and nothing was ever easy for Penny when it came to Quentin. There was no way that Quentin was suddenly going to stop singing and thus leave Penny alone. The universe seemed to love fucking with Penny, and--Quentin appeared bounding into the room. The door banged off the wall it was opened so quickly.

What-The-Fuck was Quentin doing in the Psycho house? Let alone his room?

“In case you forgot, we're not roomies anymore and you don't live here.” Penny glared.

Quentin shut the door with just as much exuberant barely-contained excitement that he entered the room with ignoring Penny's glare. A Penny glare was a normal facial expression at this point. 

Quentin's expression was brimming with energy and it seemed nothing Penny could do would deter that.

Penny fell back exasperatedly onto his bed and stared at the ceiling. Maybe, just maybe, if he ignored Quentin then he would go away. He would realize he was lost and entered the wrong room for some ungodly reason and would leave.

Penny closed his eyes and began a mantra of wishing Quentin away.

Quentin sat on the bed beside Penny causing the bed to bounce. Penny opened his eyes and turn to focus his glare on his unwanted guest. 

Quentin began speaking very fast and very excitedly, “So I talked to Elliot about trying to get movies to work here on campus, and since Brakebills is a lot like Hogwarts where the magic interferes with the technology-” 

Penny closed his eyes and let out an obnoxious sigh. “And your point Coldwater?”

“Well Elliot showed me a spell that the physical kids have modified to get this” Quentin pulled an old laptop out of his messenger and held it up to Penny with pride, “to run on campus!”

Penny sat up and scooted back to rest against the headboard. His grimmest at the sight of the battered old laptop that didn't even look like it could turn on. “And what does that thing have to do with you barging into my room and bothering me in the middle of my quiet mediating?”

“Oh,” Quentin looked unsure for a moment before his smile grew larger than before, “ I brought the laptop so we could watch Hook.”

“Watch what?”

“Hook, you know the Peter Pan movie with 'Bangarang'. You have to see it!” Quentin gushed. He actually gushed about something not Fillory.

Penny could do nothing but glare since apparently Quentin had suddenly lost a fear for his life around Penny. Quentin's thoughts were a burst of color and a feeling of joy with no real words attached.

“Come on, the song doesn't even make sense if you haven't seen the movie.” Quentin insisted.

Penny continued glaring.

“Please?” Quentin begged with the saddest puppy dog eyes he could muster.

Penny was faced with a very serious dilemma. On the one hand he did not want to watch this stupid nerd movie. He really wanted to tell his ex-roommate to shove off and get the fuck out of his room. He felt a sick satisfaction at the thought of Quentin's face crumbling with disappointment when his idea was rejected. 

But on the other hand this was Quentin. If Penny knew anything, it was that Quentin might give up for a couple of hours or a day but then he would be right back and twice as obnoxious. Quentin had successfully stopped singing Taylor Swift and if this was part of the requirements for those horrible lyrics not to return then Penny could sit through a movie. It was easier to give in now to this tiny demand now then to deal with whatever this became morphed into later if he fought it.

“Fine, I'll watch your loser movie.” Quentin gave an exclamation of cheer. “But once this is done you will never, NEVER, bring it up again. Do you understand?”

“Umhmm, Yup, Sure that's fine.” Quentin gave a child like smile as he arranged himself to sit next to Penny at the headboard. He opened the laptop and begin clicking on buttons to start up the movie. 

Penny took a deep breath to fortify his resolve before turning his attention to the screen. It was only a few hours and then this would be over.

Quentin pulled a box out of his bag as the opening credits began to play and handed it to Penny with a smile. “I brought Fun Dip.”

It would only be a few hours, Penny reminded himself as he took out a package of raspberry/apple fun dip.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * 

As the ending credits of the film started playing both Quentin and Penny had smiles on their faces. They also had stained fingers that much resembled the color of the goop from the food fight between the lost boys.

Quentin turned to Penny smiling, "Bangarang?”

Penny's expression went solemn as if making a decision. The he broke into a grin. “Bangarang!”


End file.
